Much to take away from saga
Policy, culture need revisiting as seriousness of Rice matter seems to escape Ravens owner
Turn over the videotape, or else.
For all of the finger-pointing on full display Monday when Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti addressed a report by ESPN’s Outside the Lines alleging the team’s integrity was compromised in addressing the Ray Rice domestic violence saga, a redeeming lesson is painfully clear.
The new personal conduct policy that the NFL is crafting needs to have a clear stipulation that those subject to it must — and this includes their attorneys — provide any relevant evidence as a condition of their continued employment.
That it isn’t already included in the existing policy is stunning to me, for all of the lawyering in play.
It’s a shame the Ravens, and by extension the NFL, didn’t demand that Rice’s defense team provide the inside-the-elevator footage and other evidence that was obtained in the discovery process — with or without a requirement in the policy.
Maybe because they, simply put, didn’t “want to” hard enough.
Last week, Bisciotti mentioned, he defended the team’s competence.
This week, the integrity is in question with OTL, citing sources, alleging the team sought to influence the original discipline from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that turned out to be so weak. Let’s get only so distracted. For years, the Ravens front office — with a history of sticking by players who deal with sticky offthe-field issues — has been one of the most respected in the NFL on several levels that includes producing teams that consistently compete.
Competence has not been an issue. They know their stuff.
Besides, we’re in the “ignorance is not an excuse” era of league scandals.
Their insensitivity, NFL macho culture or not, is another matter. It’s indefensible. As I watched Bisciotti’s 47minute news conference, it seemed that he — and maybe others in positions of power within the organization — remains out of touch with the gravity of domestic violence issues.
When Bisciotti says he was never interested enough to want to see the tape, you know there are serious problems.
Add that to the Ravens maintaining they were operating under the assumption Rice slapped his then-fiancée and now-wife Janay, with an open hand, and it illustrates how deep the problem flows.
Like a woman getting knocked out with a slap — from a pro football player, mind you — is less egregious. It should not have taken a second, inside-the-elevator video to show the brutality of domestic violence and for them to determine that it was brutal enough.
Would two slaps with an open hand have equaled one fist? If Ravens President Dick Cass or general manager Ozzie Newsome were to swing with a closed fist, would it pack as much power as Rice’s open hand?
That’s why Bisciotti’s openhand theory is nonsense. And so sad.
Bisciotti expressed his loving feelings for Rice, who before the life-altering incident was indeed a model citizen for the Ravens with community-service points galore.
Yet it suggested something else, at least subliminally, that with such a forum Biscotti didn’t express grief about Janay until the 47th minute, while responding to the last question.
No wonder he stumbled when asked about not sensing the seriousness of domestic violence from the start and not being moved to respond more vigorously until seeing the second videotape.
“This is a society thing,” Bisciotti said. “So as much as I’d like to tell you that I should have stood up and told you, ‘ To hell with the way the world views this; we’re going to take a stand better and bigger than anyone else,’ I’m
When Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti says he was never interested enough to want to see the tape, you know there are serious problems.
not that good. I’m not that honorable, I guess, that I was prepared to take the worst-case punishment for someone that I have incredibly loving feelings for.” Say what? Bad choice of words. For crying out loud, show some social responsibility.
Yet despite all of the teaching moments presented in recent weeks, Biscotti even made light of the serious issue of hiring women to executive positions when the matter was broached.
That was not a good look. Intentional or not, it came off with all of the sincerity of someone who will be forced to make changes because circumstances dictate it.
Bisciotti sounded more passionate when he declared Rice could someday have a job with the organization in a player-support role.
That’s why people wonder about the integrity at play in this case.
Oh, yeah, big changes are coming down the pike.
The Ravens and the NFL can also execute fundamentals such as recording the discipline hearings and having transcripts of the sessions, when in the midst of examining these sticky issues.
Can you imagine if a surveillance video never existed?